A learner biker died after he hit the back of a car which had stopped in front of him and was thrown into the path of another vehicle.

Student Craig Collin, 17, of Llain Wen, Benllech, Anglesey, suffered serious internal injuries in the collision near his home on November 8 and was in a coma at a Stoke hospital before he died there on November 16 – leaving friends and family devastated.

On Wednesday witness Margaret Hughes, of Benllech, told an inquest at Llangefni that she was driving her grey BMW on the B5110 from Llangefni towards Benllech and remembered a motorcycle behind her “a little bit too close for safety”.

Mrs Hughes came up to a stationary white van on her side of the road which was there to warn motorists of hedge-cutting being carried out and she decided to stop because there were oncoming cars.

She said: “I came up to the van. I said ‘I am not going to pass this van because it was on a bend’. It wasn’t a sudden stop. I braked and looked forward at the van. All I heard was a thud on the back of my car and I thought ‘The bike has hit me’.”

She said Craig was lying on the road behind another car. Mrs Hughes said she was driving at “no more than 30mph” as she approached the van.

Witness Dewi Wyn Jones, of Llanfairpwll, was driving a Renault Megane from the direction of Benllech.

He said: “It was getting dark. I was aware that there were roadworks. The only thing I can remember is seeing this helmet coming towards my bonnet.

“The next thing I saw was the motorcyclist. I never got a chance to put a foot on my brake. He came over the bonnet and past my wing mirror.”

“I initially thought he was dead, there and then. He was semi-conscious.”

Another witness, Margaret Owen, was driving behind Mr Jones. Mrs Owen said: “He seemed to wobble as if he was losing control or there was something wrong. I had to swerve to avoid him. There was nothing anybody could do. It just happened in a split second.”

Police traffic officers said there were no defects on the road or vehicles.

Ysbyty Gwynedd consultant pathologist Dr Mark Lord said Mr Collin died of multiple injuries and multiple organ failure due to a road accident.

Concluding that the death was

accidental, North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said: “Mr Collin was not a very experienced motorcyclist and may have been riding too close to the BMW. He clipped the BMW.

“How Mr Collin was driving that bike was a significant factor in this particular case. The slowing down of the BMW was an entirely unforeseen event or he would have reacted to it.“

The Coleg Menai motor engineering student, who was originally from

Amlwch, was described as a quiet and caring young man who had a passion for motorbikes and music. He had been a young firefighter and an outstanding student.

He was working at Blackstone Garage at Parys Mountain as a mechanic and had received a 125cc Skyjet bike for his 17th birthday just a few weeks before the accident.